MelissaDarabian

Whether it's 'The Barefoot Contessa' or 'Tyler's Ultimate,' there's a wide variety of food, cooking, chefs and experts on The Food Network. For the most part, the diversity is great and if you're a food fan -- a foodie -- you can watch FN for hours on end and be entertained. However, if you do watch for more than a few hours, especially the 'in the kitchen' programming which is all about creating dishes, there are some things that stand out -- five burning questions about the Food Network.

1. What's with the hygiene?
On nearly every cooking show, the food preparers -- whether they're an American Iron Chef like Bobby Flay or a restaurant owner/home cook like Paula Deen -- are obsessive about washing their hands. Any time they touch meat or chicken, there's a camera following them to the sink to wash hands with soap.

Remember how in Miss America, the emcee would always say that in the event that Miss America cannot fulfill her duties, the first runner up would step in? Apparently that's how it works with The Next Food Network Star, too. Just three weeks after Melissa D'Arabian was declared the winner, her number one challenger -- the guy who placed second -- Jeffrey Saad has been given his own show. It's not on the network, but it's a show nonetheless.

According to Food Network honcho Bob Tuschman's blog, Jeffrey Saad will be doing a mini-series on the web site -- exclusively for now -- called The Spice Smuggler. The premise is based on the Alton Brown directed pilot that Jeffrey presented in the finale of The Next Food Network Star.

A week ago -- in TV time -- Melissa D'Arabian was crowned the winner of The Next Food Network Star. Presto-chango and one week later, her new show debuted on The Food Network, called Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa D'Arabian. That wasn't the concept she was talking about during the competition, but within hours of last Sunday's finale, FN had decided that this would be the format for Melissa.

It was with a lot of curiosity that I checked out the debut of Ten Dollar Dinners. Would Melissa be able to adapt her "kitchen survival guide" and perky homemaker style to a skin flint, sawbuck a dinner concept? Would the personality -- that the judges harped on wanting to see -- come out in a slickly-made premiere episode?

Don't mess with Mom in the kitchen. Melissa d'Arabian, a mother of four young daughters from Texas, won the title of the 'Next Food Network Star' in last night's season 5 finale. She beat out frontrunner and fellow finalist Jeffrey Saad of Los Angeles.

In the finale, both contestants debuted their pilot presentations. After viewing them, the judges -- star chef Bobby Flay and Food Network executives Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson -- declared this to be the most difficult decision in the five seasons of the series.

Jacob at FoodNetworkAddict.com has come up with five good reasons why he thinks Melissa Darabian will win The Next Food Network Star when the competition wraps next Sunday. His points are well thought out, especially the one that suggests that Melissa's journey on the show has been dramatically edited to make her seem like an underdog who has now emerged as a dynamic player. However, I'm banking on Jeffrey Saad to win. Here's my five reasons:

1. The likability factorSince the opening episode, there hasn't been a more attractive and likable competitor on The Next Food Network Star. Jeffrey makes viewers feel comfortable, like a Tom Selleck or James Garner, and when you're talking about TV personalities, that's the most important asset. Jeffrey would be welcomed on TVs in living rooms -- and kitchens -- around the country.